Information Appeal: BP British Museum Sponsorship (No.2)

We are instructed by Dr Christopher Garrard, who is the founder of Culture Unstained, a campaign organisation dedicated to ending fossil fuel sponsorship of cultural institutions. We are instructed to appeal the Information Commissioner’s decision to dismiss Dr Garrard’s complaint about the British Museum refusing to disclose information about the due diligence process it undertook before entering a new 10-year sponsorship agreement with BP.  

BP has sponsored the British Museum since 1996. As the existing sponsorship agreement approached its expiry in 2021, senior representatives of BP and the museum began discussing a possible renewal. During those negotiations, internal documents were prepared to assist museum officials in their discussions with BP. Those documents are the subject of this appeal. The negotiations ultimately led to a new sponsorship agreement, formally concluded in December 2023, under which BP agreed to provide the museum with £50 million over a ten-year period.

There has been considerable controversy surrounding the sponsorship of prominent cultural institutions by fossil fuel companies, both because of those companies’ business practices and the ethical questions those sponsorship arrangements raise.

Against that backdrop, Dr Garrard submitted an earlier request in 2022 for access to internal memoranda concerning early discussions about renewing BP’s sponsorship of the British Museum. The request was upheld in part by the First-tier Tribunal in 2024. We acted for Dr Garrard in those proceedings and you can read more about that case here.

However, the current proceedings concern a request made by Dr Garrard in 2024 for documents and correspondence generated during the British Museum’s due diligence process when considering whether to enter into a new ten-year sponsorship agreement with BP, worth £50 million. The Museum refused the request, and that decision was subsequently upheld by the Information Commissioner’s Office. Dr Garrard now appeals on two grounds:

• First, that disclosure of the requested information would neither inhibit the free and frank exchange of advice nor prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs (they being the primary reasons for refusal); and
• Second, that in any event the public interest in disclosing information outweighs any public interest in maintaining the museum’s reasons for refusal.

The First-tier Tribunal has accepted the appeal, and the hearing is likely to be listed towards the middle of next year. The British Museum has confirmed they will participate in proceedings.

Alex Shattock of Landmark Chambers is instructed as counsel.